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Brazil, South America

Brazil is the fifth largest country by geographical area, occuping nearly half of South America, the fifth most populous country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world. In 1830, Dom Pedro I signed into law the Imperial Penal Code eliminating all references to sodomy. As of 2003, discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation was prohibited in 73 municipal statutes, including São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, and three state constitutions. Same-sex civil unions have been established at the state level in the State of Rio Grande do Sul. A court decision has been pending since 2005 on legalizing marriage nationwide.

Despite some positive laws, research done in 2005 found that 65% of the homosexuals interviewed in that year's São Paulo Gay Pride Parade said that they were victims of hate speech and/or suffered physical aggression. In mid-2006, Brazil launched Brazil Against Homophobia, a campaign against homophobia within the country including TV advertisement and billboards. The first adoption in Brazil by a same-sex couple was by a lesbian couple from Rio Grande do Sul. In May 2011 Brazil's Federal Surpeme Court ruled unanimously (10 to 0) that Civil Unions are legally acceptable relationships between adult citizens of the same gender. Read more about gay rights.

Tens of thousands of people have celebrated at Rio de Janeiro’s annual gay pride parade at Copacabana beach. Under a blazing sun, revelers wearing feathery costumes and wigs held up rainbow flags and danced along the promenade Sunday as music blasted from a half dozen sound trucks. Organizers said this year’s parade was focusing on… Read more »

A multi-colored gay pride flag hangs in a corner of a bare room in an abandoned Sao Paulo art deco building that was once the headquarters of Brazil’s social security agency. The room is home to several members of Brazil’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community seeking refuge from discrimination and hate crimes against LGBT… Read more »

Beijing — Peng Yanhui is celebrating the fact that a record number of openly gay athletes are taking part in the Olympics, while ruing that none are from China. Fifty-two competitors and coaches who are openly lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex are participating in the Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, according to figures… Read more »

Rio De Janeiro — The assailant struck as Gabriel Figueira Lima, 21, stood on a street two weeks ago in a city in the Amazon, plunging a knife into his neck and speeding off on the back of a motorcycle, leaving him to die. A few days earlier, in the coastal state of Bahia, two… Read more »

Micro Rainbow International secures funding through the European Union for a three-year project to help lift LGBTI people in Brazil out of poverty Not-for-profit social enterprise Micro Rainbow International (MRI) has announced that is has received funding from the European Union for a three-year project to help alleviate poverty among the LGBTI communities in Brazil.… Read more »

A report the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights released on Wednesday indicates anti-LGBT violence claimed the lives of at least 594 people in the Western Hemisphere between Jan. 1, 2013, and March 31 of this year. More than half of these reported deaths during this 15-month period took place in Brazil. These include an 8-year-old… Read more »

A group of boys at a Brazil school have donned skirts, after a transgender girl was fined by teachers for wearing the “incorrect” uniform. 17-year-old Maria Muniz, who recently came out as trans at São Cristóvão do Colégio Pedro II, was disciplined by teachers and handed a fine after she wore a skirt to school,… Read more »

Sao Paulo – Gay rights advocates called for a Brazilian law against discrimination as they gathered by the hundreds of thousands in Sao Paulo on Sunday for one of the world’s largest gay pride parades. The city blocked its main central avenue to allow room for colorful floats and exuberant crowds of people dressed as… Read more »

AFP – A total of 130 couples said “I do” in a mass wedding at Rio de Janeiro’s Superior Court of Justice, marking the city’s first gay civil marriages. In mid-May, Brazilian courts determined that public offices that oversee marriages cannot reject gay couples, even though Brazil’s national congress has passed no law on the… Read more »

132 same-sex couples were legally married Sunday in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in what is believed to be the world’s largest mass same-sex wedding The ceremony was held in the auditorium of the School of Magistrates of Rio de Janeiro. Each of the 132 couples were able to invite up to ten family members and… Read more »

A group in Rio de Janeiro is expected to protest Pope Francis’ stance on gay rights with a kiss-in. Francis on Monday will arrive in Brazil, where he will be participating in World Youth Day, a weeklong event that celebrates the contributions of young Roman Catholics. “I am arriving in Brazil in a few hours… Read more »

São Paulo is the kind of city that locals love to hate; like any metropolis in the world, you’ll want to scream during rush hour, complain about the crowds (the population is a little over 11 million), whine about the parking prices and cost of living. However, once you take a deep breath and remind… Read more »

Thousands of evangelical Christians rallied in Brasilia to protest against a legal ruling allowing gay marriage and against an anti-homophobia bill they said limits freedom of expression. It was the second such demonstration in less than two weeks to defend “the traditional family” and oppose abortion and homosexuality. Wednesday’s Brasilia protest was called by Pastor… Read more »

Rio De Janeiro — A top judicial panel cleared the way for same-sex marriage in Brazil Tuesday, ruling that gay couples could not be denied marriage licenses. The National Council of Justice, which oversees the Brazilian judicial system and is headed by the chief justice of the Supreme Court, said government offices that issue marriage… Read more »

Brasilia, Brazil – Brazil is guaranteeing homosexual couples’ right to access assisted fertilization. The wording of the an earlier decree governing who has the right to use such techniques was vague, and some courts here had blocked gay couples from using in-vitro fertilization and other assisted fertilization methods in the past. The new decree stipulates… Read more »

Paraíba and Santa Catarina have become the 13th and 14th states to legalize equal marriage, meaning 60% of Brazilians can get married without going through the two-step process Santa Catarina and Paraíba have become the 13th and 14th states to approve the right to marry to same-sex couples. As Freedom to Marry notes, this means… Read more »

Brazilian Father Roberto Francisco Daniel was excommunicated from the Catholic Church who accused him of sin and hersey after he posted a pro-gay YouTube message A Catholic priest in São Paulo state, Brazil was excommunicated after resigning from his duties to protest against the church’s anti-gay stance. ‘Father Roberto Francisco Daniel can no longer celebrate… Read more »

Communities offer rare combination of spiritual orthodoxy, social inclusivity and local culture — but not without critics. Rio De Janeiro — Last fall, the Rev. Marcio Retamero was invited to testify before members of the Brazilian congress, where he talked about human rights generally and the rights of sexual minorities in particular. His subsequent run-in… Read more »

From April 2nd to 5th, 2013 activists from more than 20 Latin American countries met in Brasilia, Brazil, to discuss the results and further steps resulting from the Resolution presented by South Africa on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Human Rights and adopted by the Human Rights Council in 2011. This meeting is part… Read more »

Grupo Gay da Bahia, a gay rights group in Brazil, releases startling figures for homophobic killings that took place in the Latin American country last year Once again, activists claim Brazil has the world’s highest occurrence of homophobic murders. Brazilian LGBT rights group Grupo Gay da Bahia has released a breakdown of gay-related murders for… Read more »

Marco Feliciano, a racist, evangelical, pastor and congressman who thinks gays are ‘sick’, has been elected to head Brazil’s human rights committee Brazil’s House of Representatives has elected a renowned racist and homophobic deputy and evangelical pastor, Marco Feliciano, to chair the house Committee on Human Rights and Minorities (CDHM) today. The election should have… Read more »

Latest research out of Brazil shows once again the country continues to have the highest murder rate for LGBT people in the world. The Gay Group of Bahia has for 30 years been compiling and publishing statistics on LGBT deaths in the South American country and the latest report shows that there were 338 murders… Read more »

Earlier this week, a judge in the Brazilian state of São Paulo has ruled that gay couples in civil unions will no longer have to apply to the courts to have their relationships ‘upgraded’ to marriages. The judgement will effectively mean that same-sex marriage is now legal in the state. Judge Fernando Henrique Pinto said… Read more »

Almost 100 gay and lesbian couples had their unions legalized in symbolic ceremony Almost 100 gay and lesbian couples took part in a mass ‘wedding’ in Rio, Brazil, yesterday (9 December). The 92 same-sex couples joined the ceremony which legalized their unions just short of marriage status, reported AFP. However, the service at the Rio… Read more »

Tens of thousands pour on to Copacabana beach for carnvival themed LGBT pride An estimated one million people hit Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Copacabana beach yesterday (18 November) for the Brazilian city’s annual gay pride celebrations. Fifteen floats blaring music lined Avenida Atlantica, while many revellers came dressed in colorful carnival costumes. As well holding… Read more »

An estimated one million people turned out to celebrate Brazil Gay Pride on Sunday. Floats blaring music lined Rio de Janeiro’s Avenida Atlantica across from the city’s iconic Copacabana beach, site of the 17th annual carnival-inspired party. This year’s event called for an end to homophobia in Brazilian society. Julio Moreira, president of Grupo Arco-Iris,… Read more »

Huge crowds have been taking part in Rio de Janeiro’s Gay Pride parade. Organisers Grupo Arco-Iris (Rainbow Group) were expecting more than one million people to join the carnival-inspired event on Copacabana beach. Mothers of gay men and women opened the parade, which this year aimed to highlight the issue of homophobia in Brazilian society.… Read more »

The Expanded Thematic Group on HIV/AIDS in Brazil (GT/UNAIDS), in joint partnership with national and international groups, sent a letter on October 16 to Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and other Brazilian authorities, requesting priority be given to efforts to criminalize “homophobia.” The letter was signed by GT/UNAIDS and its members: USAID, UNHCR, ILO, UN Women,… Read more »

“This contest is key for the visibility of us. We transgender woman suffer a lot from prejudice and discrimination, whether we are pretty or not, rich or poor.” That’s how one contestant describes Brazil’s first transgender beauty pageant, staged Oct. 30 in Rio de Janeiro. The event is particularly historic in the Latin American nation,… Read more »

Fifteen activists from Curitiba, state capital of Paraná, Brazil report they have been receiving constant death threats Fifteen activists from Curitiba, Brazil have revealed today that they have been receiving constant death threats since the last week of September. All the threats are of a homophobic nature and characteristic of hate crimes expressing a high… Read more »

The Brazilian state of São Paulo organized a collective ‘gay partnership day’ in which 46 couples collectively registered their relationship as a civil union The Brazilian state of São Paulo organized a collective ‘gay partnership day’ in which 46 couples had their relationship registered as a civil union, followed by a religious blessing and an… Read more »

A bar in the city of Teresina, Brazil was issued with an administrative warning for having discriminated against a lesbian couple. The municipality of the city of Teresina, Brazil issued a penalty notice against a bar that discriminated against a lesbian couple who attended a Valentine’s Day party at the premises. The warning was issued… Read more »

A report suggests the risk of a gay man being murdered in Brazil is 800% higher than in the US Sex-rights groups in Peru and Brazil announced the number of homosexual killings in 2011. Brazil’s Grupo Gay da Bahia (GGB) documented 266 murders of gays, lesbians and transvestites in Brazil last year, six more than… Read more »

The Senate’s revisions to the penal code safeguard against gender identity or sexual orientation discrimination A peaceful anti-homophobia demonstration in Brazil is one of several responses to reports of homophobia in the country. A Brazilian Senate committee passed an anti-homophobia bill on Friday (25 May). Just days after the human rights committee approved civil unions… Read more »

Just how many people know of Brazilian Supergay Jean Wyllys? In 2005, 50 million Brazilians voted for him to win the popular reality TV show Gran Hermano, Brazil’s version of Big Brother. That’s only 13 million short of the number of Americans who voted for Obama during our national presidential election. Instead of opting to… Read more »

A court in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil approved a request to convert the civil union of a gay male couple into a civil marriage, the AFP reported. Judge Luiz Felipe Francisco said Brazilian law does not prohibit marriage between members of the same sex. “As there is no explicit barrier to marriage between two people… Read more »

When you think of mainstream television programs like Ellen, Glee, and Modern Family, you can see the power of the the media to change American societal attitudes towards LGBT individuals. To learn about queer life in Brazil, we met with media guru Andre Fischer. Supergay Andre is director of Mix Brazil, the largest LGBT media… Read more »

One of the developing world’s rising stars is also seeing a surge in antigay homicides. Kristian Jepsen on how the hate crimes are casting a shadow over a major emerging economy. Brazil has never been hotter. Tourists and entrepreneurs are flocking to the country for its natural beauty and its booming business climate. Portuguese professionals… Read more »

Source – Instituto de Medicina Social, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. carrara@ims.uerj.br Abstract This article focuses on a politics arena that has been articulated through the impact of ideals of sexual rights on Brazilian sexual politics, namely the affirmation of “LGBT rights”. These rights have been constructed both through attempts to extend… Read more »

The Brazilian State of São Paulo in partnership with the São Paulo City Metro (Underground) launched yesterday a campaign to combat homophobia entitled: “See beyond prejudice. Respect differences.” Its objective is to increase respect towards, and decrease discrimination against, LGBT people living in South America’s most populous city. The first stage of the project aims… Read more »